IES has set its 2026–2028 strategy under the banner of lasting, scalable growth.
As a research studio obsessed with measuring what “good light” really is in real spaces, we see this as more than an internal roadmap for a society – it’s a clear signal for the whole ecosystem.
From LRS (Lighting Recipe Studio), here’s how we read it – and how we’re responding.
1️. From documents to devices: aligning with the IES language of light
At LRS, our work starts with a simple question:
If a standard defines “good light”, how do we see it at eye level with a meter in a real room?
That’s why, as IES doubles down on precise and trusted information, our direction is:
Align our instruments and algorithms with IES / CIE / WELL terminology, not invent new ones
Make sure In.Licht devices natively speak the same “technical language” that designers, standards bodies and certification schemes already use
Concretely, that means:
Color quality: TM-30 metrics as a core reference
Flicker: SVM, Pst LM and related indices, not vague “no flicker” claims
Non-visual / circadian: CIE S 026-based metrics (e.g. melanopic EDI / EML) measured at eye level
All wrapped into workflows that match how projects are actually designed, commissioned and verified
If IES’s job is to define what counts as good practice, our job is to make that measurable, repeatable and explainable on site.
2️. Field Evaluation System (FES): where strategy meets reality
Standards live in PDFs. People live in wards, classrooms, offices, homes and hotels.
Our Field Evaluation System (FES) is where those two worlds meet:
We take IES / CIE / WELL concepts
We measure real spaces with In.Licht Ultra / Pro / Well
We translate the results into design feedback, health-relevant insight and business language
Typical questions we help answer:
“This office meets code for illuminance – but is the daytime melanopic stimulus enough to support alertness?”
“This hospital room is visually comfortable – but is the day–night contrast strong enough to support better sleep?”
“This hotel room looks beautiful on photos – but does the evening spectrum really help guests wind down instead of staying wired?”
The more IES leans into data, education and tools, the more we see FES as a practical way to operationalize that strategy in real projects.
3️. Bridging tradition and transformation in design practice
We share IES’s belief that:
Classic metrics remain essential – illuminance, uniformity, glare, color rendering are still the foundation.
But they’re no longer the whole story.
At LRS, we deliberately design our methods to layer:
Compliance Are we meeting IES / local code / client requirements?
Health & experience Are we supporting circadian rhythms, mood, comfort and performance in a way that can be measured and improved?
Our goal isn’t to replace established standards with fashionable buzzwords.
It’s to anchor new human-centric and emotional metrics onto a solid technical base that regulators, engineers and clients can trust.
4️. Our commitment going forward
In light of IES’s new strategic direction, LRS is committed to:
Continuously aligning In.Licht devices with internationally recognized metrics and methods
Expanding our FES database to cover more building types, cultures and usage patterns, especially across Asia and emerging markets
Sharing insights in ways that are useful not only to researchers, but also to designers, manufacturers, owners, operators and certifiers
If your work touches WELL, IES, CIE, healthy buildings, human-centric lighting or smart controls, we’d love to explore how measured light can support your projects, standards work or product roadmap.
Light for life needs more than good intentions – it needs good measurement.
Many smart home and lighting distributors feel the same way: systems are becoming more impressive, scenes more sophisticated. Yet what customers remember isn’t the appearance of the lights, but whether their eyes feel at ease at home and whether their sleep truly gets better.
Think of this as a small “preventive shot” for our friends in the smart home and lighting distribution community — and a short exercise in reflection:
What does realhealthy lighting actually mean?
How can distributors clearly and convincingly explain healthy light to their clients?
And how can measured, evidence-based data help clients see its real value — and feel confident investing in lighting that genuinely supports their health?
1. Smart Homes Can Look Impressive — Yet People Don’t Always Sleep Better
Let’s start with a few situations you hear almost every day 👇
A child doing homework Parents say, “The light is already very bright — so why does my child keep rubbing their eyes?”
An office worker coming home Clients say, “The lighting ambience at home is nice, but I still don’t sleep well at night.”
A household with elderly family members They say, “Sometimes the light is too harsh and hard on the eyes; other times the floor feels too dim, and I’m afraid of falling.”
Behind all these complaints lies the same underlying issue:
we put too much attention on how smart or how attractive the fixtures are, and too little on a fundamental question —
What kind of light is actually reaching people’s eyes in that space?
Smart systems can be impressive, but if they stop at “phone control” or “voice on/off,” clients quickly start to think:
“It looks powerful, but what does it have to do with whether I sleep well or whether my child’s eyes feel tired?”
That missing connection is exactly what healthy lighting is meant to address.
2. Beautiful Lights vs. Useful Light
On project sites, the specifications we’re most familiar with are: 3000K / 4000K, CRI 90, lumens, watts… Of course, these are important, but they answer only one question:
“Who is this luminaire? How does it describe itself?”
What clients really care about is: When I sit on the sofa, stand in the kitchen, or lie in bed, how much light is actually reaching my eyes in that spot? And this light — does it make me more alert and focused, or more relaxed and ready to sleep?
The more critical point is that the space itself “rewrites” the light: ceiling height, wall colors, floor materials, the presence of windows, how curtains are drawn, furniture placement — all of these change the light that ultimately reaches the eyes.
That’s why I often tell clients:
“The lamp’s specs are written in the manual; the health effects are written in the human eye.”
The essence of healthy lighting isn’t how beautiful the fixture is, but whether the light actually works for the person and the scene.
3. Healthy Lighting, Simply Three Things: See Clearly, Sleep Well, Feel Comfortable
When most people hear “healthy lighting,” they think of a bunch of technical terms: m-EDI, EML, CS, flicker, blue-light hazards… But if you’re a distributor, what you really need is a version you can explain to clients.
We can understand healthy light in three levels, summarized in three simple points 👇
1) See clearly, without glare (vision & safety)
Work surfaces should be bright enough without shining directly in the eyes
No harsh glare, colors appear natural, objects are easy to see
Distributor-friendly phrasing:
“For your child’s homework, the desk and their face need to be well lit — that way, their eyes won’t tire so easily.”
Evening: gradually dim and warm the light to prepare for sleep
Simplified explanation:
Morning: brighter and cooler → brain wakes up
Evening: dimmer and warmer → body prepares to sleep
Client-friendly phrasing:
“In the morning, give your brain a ‘wake-up signal.’ At night, help your body press the ‘power-off button.’”
3) Feel comfortable, enjoy the ambience (mood & experience)
Working, watching shows, hosting friends — each scenario needs different lighting
Color temperature, brightness, and contrast directly affect mood
One-sentence summary:
“Changing a scene isn’t just changing the lights — it’s changing the mood of the day.”
4. How Can Distributors Explain “Healthy Light” to Clients?
If you’re talking to homeowners or project owners, the conversation might go like this 👇
Client asks:
“What’s special about your lights?”
If you answer:
“We have CRI 90, support XYZ protocol, and smooth dimming…”
The client might nod politely, but they won’t remember.
Instead, try this approach:
“We don’t just create beautiful lighting — we design a 24-hour light routine for your whole family.”
“Morning light helps you wake up, evening light helps you sleep well — that’s what truly smart lighting means.”
“The lamp’s specs are written in the manual, but the health benefits are written in your sleep.”
These are the “healthy light phrases” distributors really need — easy to understand, memorable, and shareable.
5. From “Selling Lights” to “Becoming a Light Health Advisor”: Three Steps for Distributors
If you want to upgrade in the client’s mind from “equipment seller” to “consultative partner,” start with these three actions 👇
Step 1: Conduct a “Home Light Health Check”
When visiting a client, don’t just talk about price and product lists. First, perform a simple light health check by measuring 3–4 key spots:
Living room
Dining table
Children’s room
Master bedroom
Use your instrument to quickly assess:
Is the brightness sufficient?
Is the light glaring?
For the child’s study area, is the light reaching their eyes enough?
Is the pre-sleep area too bright or too cool?
Finally, give the client a red-yellow-green evaluation chart:
Green: Already good
Yellow: Can be optimized
Red: Not suitable for current usage
When you move from “selling lights” to “checking light health first,” the client’s trust and confidence in you changes completely.
Step 2: Design a “24-Hour Light Routine”
Based on the client’s schedule and family members, create a simple light routine chart:
Morning: Wake up, wash, breakfast → Bright and energizing
Daytime: Working from home, chores → Stable and comfortable
Evening: Family dinner, conversation → Warm and relaxing
1–2 hours before bed: Bedroom → Soft, warm light, reduce blue light
You can use scene function to set a few “healthy light scenes” with one click:
Morning Wake-Up
Focused Study
Family Time
Pre-Sleep Relaxation
This way, when clients press a scene button, they’re not just switching lights — they’re following a complete lifestyle rhythm that supports health.
Step 3: Deliver a “Healthy Light Environment Report”
At the end of the project, don’t just hand over the equipment list and completion photos — also provide a “Home Light Health Report.”
The report can be simple, including:
Illuminance and color temperature measurements for key areas
Which scenes are optimized for sleep, study, and elderly safety
Simple recommendations and explanations
When clients receive this report, they clearly understand:
“I didn’t just buy a bunch of devices — I bought a complete, science-based light environment.”
And you’ve now transitioned from being “the person who sells lights” to their trusted long-term light health advisor.
6. Why It Must Be “Measured Healthy Light” — The Role of Lighting Recipe Studio (LRS) & In.Licht
At this point, you might ask:
“For these assessments, checks, and reports, can’t we just rely on intuition?”
The answer is simple: no, that’s not enough.
For healthy lighting to truly hold up, it must be measurable and verifiable.
This is exactly why we developed the In.Licht series of light environment measurement instruments — to provide distributors and designers with a portable, cost-effective toolkit that allows you to do three key things in any project:
🔍 In.Licht Ultra — The “Light Health Check Doctor” On Site
Ideal for showrooms, model homes, and key projects
Measures spectrum, TM-30 color quality, flicker, and circadian-related metrics like m-EDI
How to use it: walk the client through the space and explain with real data what’s working and what needs adjustment
Turns professional expertise into visible, tangible evidence for clients
📏 In.Licht Pro — The Distributor’s “Portable Assistant”
Lightweight, easy to use
Perfect for daily client visits and quick evaluations
How to use it: measure illuminance and color temperature on the spot in a client’s home or sales center
Instantly gives you more meaningful content to discuss
🏠 In.Licht WELL — The “Black Box” for Light and Air in a Space
Records 24-hour light environment and indoor air quality (CO₂, PM2.5, etc.)
Ideal for spaces that require long-term verification and optimization
How to use it: track light health over time and show clients how the system supports their family in real life
One-sentence summary:
“We’re not just claiming the lights are healthy — we measure and show the good light to the client.”
7. Bringing Healthy Light into More Homes: Learning with Lighting Recipe Studio
Today, at the opening of the Zhongshan Wuan Optoelectronics Technology Showroom, We will guide everyone through a hands-on walkthrough:
How to evaluate the light environment in real spaces
How to translate complex standards into language clients can understand
How to use tools like In.Licht to turn “healthy lighting” from a slogan into a deliverable outcome
We are especially looking forward to seeing smart home distributors, lighting channel partners, designers, and media friends use this event — and this article — as a starting point to reflect:
“What kind of light do we really want to offer clients? Just a ‘beautiful space’? Or a complete lighting experience that helps them see clearly, sleep better, and feel comfortable?”
Conclusion: The value of a distributor goes far beyond ‘how much this set of lights costs.’
If you’re willing to go the extra step:
Conduct one more light health check for your client
Design a 24-hour light routine for them
Deliver a healthy light report
…you’re no longer just a name on a quotation sheet — you become a trusted light health partner in their daily life.
Follow Lighting Recipe Studio (LRS) & In.Licht as we continue to provide research, tools, and real-world examples to help you make “healthy light” more practical, convincing, and impactful.
Lighting companies should return to their core purpose and focus on creating real value.
Written by | Lawrence Lin, Founder of Lighting Recipe Studio
Over the past few decades in the lighting industry, I’ve come to realize something deeply: The essence of any business has never been just about making products—it’s about improving people’s lives.
The lighting industry should be one of the fields closest to achieving this. Yet in reality, we are often so busy with “surviving today” that we forget to consider “how to thrive in the future.”
01｜The Essence of a Business: Creating Value for People Through Light
If you strip away all the commercial language and look at the core, a company can truly do only four things:
Improve health and well-being
Support sustainability
Enhance human productivity
Increase emotional value
Lighting—through its lifecycle, touchpoints, and physical properties—happens to have the ability to influence all four areas.
The problem is that too many people in the industry are caught up in price wars, chasing volume, and stacking SKUs, and they forget why they are doing what they do.
02｜Industry Dilemma: Survive Today vs. Thrive Tomorrow
In recent years, the lighting industry is facing not just short-term fluctuations, but structural changes:
Export growth is slowing or even declining
Domestic competition is intensifying
Prices keep dropping
Product homogeneity is severe
Brand value is hard to differentiate
Incremental market opportunities are shrinking, while competition in the existing market is fierce
Many companies are exhausting themselves trying to “catch a breath” in the market, but looking back— Are we working harder to “do more”, or to “do what’s right”?
03｜Rethinking Light: From “Brightness” to “Outcomes”
LED technology has ushered light into the programmable era. Light is no longer just about illuminating space—it can now:
Enhance mood and focus (emotional spectrum, brain imaging)
Improve sleep quality (DLMO, melatonin phase)
Reduce energy consumption and support sustainability
Boost learning efficiency, work performance, and wellness experiences
As a result, the future competitive logic will no longer be: “Whose lights are brighter?” But rather: “Who can create better light-driven outcomes?”
04｜The Time Dimension: Survive in 1 Year, Thrive in 5–20 Years
Short-term (0–1 year): Efficiency is the survival line
Streamline products and reduce ineffective SKUs
Maximize manufacturing and supply chain efficiency
Avoid investing in innovations without a clear ROI
Ensure delivery reliability to the highest standard
Mid-term (1–5 years): Create differentiation through science Upgrade the “language of lighting” into a scientific language:
Color temperature → Circadian rhythm
CRI → TM-30 / Rf-Rg
No flicker → PstLM / SVM
Brightness → Eye-level illuminance
Dimming → Light recipes
This is the line between “being good at selling” and “being good at building a brand.”
Long-term (5–20 years): Build service-oriented business models Hardware will inevitably standardize. The real differentiation comes from:
Light-as-a-Service
Selling not just lamps, but the outcomes of good light: health, circadian rhythm, energy efficiency, comfort, productivity become KPIs
Lighting for buildings and cities enters an era of long-term operational optimization
The essence of the future lighting company is: “An IoT company whose core business is lighting.”
05｜The Three Most Worthwhile Investments for Lighting Companies
1️⃣ Product: From Hardware to a “Health Tool” Future lighting must be:
Measurable
Connectable
Learnable
Adaptive
Ideally, it should also support collection and feedback of light-health data.
2️⃣ Service: From One-Time Delivery to Long-Term Operations Future profits won’t come from factories, but from services:
Light-health assessments
Scene and circadian rhythm design
On-site verification and PV testing
Operational inspections of lighting systems
Annual health and energy-efficiency reports
One-time delivery cannot secure the future; continuous service builds a moat.
3️⃣ Data: The Lighting Industry’s True “Second Growth Curve” Data will reshape the value chain:
From selling parameters → to demonstrating health and efficiency outcomes
From engineering projects → to managing space operations
From products → to creating data assets
Lighting companies will shift from “selling lamps” to truly “managing light environments.”
06｜Back to People: Four Timeless Value Directions
At its core, the value that light can bring boils down to four things:
Health
Sustainability
Efficiency
Emotional value
These are the most solid directions for the next 5, 10, and 20 years in the industry. Whoever can capture these four will navigate cycles and eras successfully.
07｜Closing Thoughts: The Future of Lighting Companies Grows from Value
If the past decade was the era of LED adoption, the next 10–20 years will be the era of “Smart, Healthy Light.”
The companies that truly lead won’t be the fastest, but those who clearly know where they are heading.
Today, survive; tomorrow, thrive. What lighting companies must really do is: Illuminate spaces, illuminate health, illuminate happiness, and illuminate the future of cities.
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